Back to Reality By Way Of Dubai

No pictures just yet. I forgot to pack my card reader, so I can’t move photos from the camera to my MacBook. I’ll get that sorted fairly quickly.

Back in Baghdad, this time by way of Dubai. I had never been to Dubai before but I had heard great things about it, so I was pretty jazzed to get to spend even a little time there. I ended up arriving in the early evening, spending the night at the Park Hyatt, and flying out at dawn the next morning. Even though I only spent a little time there I can’t say enough about how beautiful the city is. Some quick observations on Dubai.

-It is beyond clean. Simply immaculate.
-Palm trees everywhere, some of them are fake.
-Lot’s of construction, but they are really building stuff, unlike a lot of cities that fake it
-Marble, marble everywhere.
-I never actually met anyone that was from the UAE. Western workers seem to be running everything.
-Every car, building, street is new. I didn’t see anything older than ten years old aside from the single malt at the bar.
-A progressive Arab Muslim country. This should be the model for the Arab world.
- The Park Hyatt is the nicest hotel I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a few.
- The harbor seemed to have a size requirement “Your big, white yacht must be this big in order to ride on this ride”.
- The city boasts the world’s only 6-star hotel, the Burj Al Arab. Someday I’ll stay there, or at least drive past it.
-All of the taxis have video screens in the headrests that play coming movie attractions. Sweet!

OK, back to reality, back to Baghdad. Since I left six weeks ago little has changed, aside from the kittens are now cats.

The media crews are out on embeds, so I’ve got a little chance to get settled in.

I’m waiting for that magical day when It’s not over 100 degrees at 5:00 a.m.

Pictures to follow.